Purple #2

I'm having a purple theme to celebrate my sister's second children's book launch,

Don't Forget Purple.

This year we have a lot of purple flowers in the garden, most of them native plants which seem to love the fact that we've thinned out the undergrowth from around the bush block we live on.

I suspect that they are receiving more sunlight.

Native Iris

Native Iris

Lavender

Dianella

Native Finger Lime

Golden Pod Peas/Snow Peas/Mangetout

The golden pod peas are doing really well and so far none of the native wildlife seem to have noticed it.  That or the high chicken wire shield I've erected is working, even though the plants have emerged out of the top of the netting.

And here is my sister's book, Don't Forget Purple in the bookshop window along with one of the bears I knitted.

The story is based on a real life event with real life characters.

Purple is my niece's bear, or should I say was!

Here is Purple Mk II.  The family found out the hard way that purple bears are not easy to come by!

Birthdays Galore

In our family, June is big on birthdays.

As my remaining siblings, (all sisters now) and I get older, I find it's more difficult to buy birthday presents for them. 

So I have taken to making their gifts and only making them something I know they will use. 

Here is what I have made my Twin Sisters for their birthday this month.

For three years running I have made them a bunch of cards.

Since Mr H.P. has spent up big on card making supplies for my Mother's Day gift this year, I thought I had better make good use of them.
Above is a sample of some of the cards I made.  The ones above are for the older of the Twins. (Ha! Ha!)

With the cards I include envelopes (of course),a sheet of postage stamps and a nice pen.  Then I place all of these items into a useful container, this year a tin which I purchased at the Hippy Shop in Springwood.

The New Age Markets (aka The Hippy Shop) is a shopper's heaven!  Be sure you'll find a gift for any occasion. An hour or two could easily be spent behind the five-shop-fronted emporium!

A warning though...if you spend too much time in there, you're bound to come out smelling of patchoulli and sandalwood...so you can't hide where you've been!

 (I'll put the link up later as it seems to be busy right now.) 

Above you can see a few of the cards I've made for P, the younger of The Twins, and at the back is the tin I will put the bundle into.

I hope they like them, but most of all, I hope they find them useful.

Two days after The Twins' birthday my niece L. turns eighteen...or as she says...she turns "legal", as in Australia, 18 is the legal age for drinking alcohol, smoking tobacco and voting.

Above is the card I've made for L.
I've tried a new technique, using white embossing powder (this one is called Seafoam White and has a bit of a pearlescence to it) stamped on baby blue card stock.

The butterfly was stamped on black card stock and embossed with the same embossing powder and then cut out with scissors before mounting on card using foam tape. 

I'm also trying my hand at word cards but I'm feeling a bit uncertain about them...so maybe more about them later.

Four birthdays down...four to go...in June.

(By the way...February is our busiest birthday month).

Do you have a month that is jam packed with birthdays?

A Place

There is A Place called the World Wide Web.

It can be good and it can be evil both at the same time.
On the good side...it is a great source of information for the DIYer and today, I learnt how to baste a quilt using the plank method.

No back breaking, finger pricking experience this time, but it still took me a good two hours to baste this cot quilt. Hopefully next time will be a bit faster as I now know what the process entails. (I must admit I watched two videos over and over again before proceeding.)

And, to keep you updated...baby Charlotte was born on the 7th...so I'm a tad behind...

The Month That Was

February...gone...already. In February I forsook my blog...and not by choice. Auto immune disease strikes again...but before it took its hold ...

...I celebrated lots and lots of birthdays (February is a big birthday month on both sides of the family).

...I made things for Crop And Swap such as..

...sachets for the pantry

...herb salt with herbs from my garden

...and some herb butter...

...I was inspired to sew some birthday gifts by Kath at Hillside House Blog.  I loved her crazy patchwork covered coat hangers so much I thought I'd try my hand at crazy patchwork (not something I have attempted before).

Kath used flannelette as a base for her work but I experimented with off-cuts of wadding.  I stitched straight onto the wadding and used my walking foot for the entire project.

 (Do drop by and visit Kath...she is bravely undertaking a house renovation as well as doing lots of sewing.)

Wow, was I thrilled with the results!  

 I used a little soft toy stuffing to add some padding... 

The above two coat hangers I made for my niece and her husband using crazy patchwork and fancy sewing machine stitches as suggested by Kath.

Don't you just love this fabric?  I used it for my nephew (yes the brother of the above mentioned niece.)I used whole cloth for this and did some simple quilting to finish off. He is a mechanic and the fabric matches the lining I used for a toilet pouch I made for him last year.

Another one and this time for the third sibling (nephew), and also matches his pouch lining fabric.  His birthday is in November but since I was on a roll...I thought...why not?

It's finished off with vintage yellow buttons from my button collection.

And for my BIL (their father)...I thought some paisley print would be appropriate for his age bracket (hehehe!).  Guess in which decade he was born?

Then, there was a brief hospital stay and little activity has taken place since then...except for some reading. 

So...I've finished reading two books...Gone With The Wind (if you haven't already read this book I highly recommend it) and The Boy Who Fell To Earth by Kathy Lette.

I have mixed feelings about Kathy Lette's book...witty, fast-moving writing about a mother(Lucy) and her autistic son (Merlin) his absent, opportunistic, father and extended families.

Read at your own discretion.

And last but not least...I've stopped drinking coffee, and eating sugar, and ingesting gluten...just like that! The thought of them turns my stomach.

Cookathon

November is turning out to be quite a 

cook-a-thon.

For Little Miss Six and my niece (who turned fifteen)I baked a rainbow cake which they shared...

For our Second Son I baked the now  traditional Black Forest Brownie cake. He turns forty next week but we had a group celebration last Sunday.

I tried my hand at making macarons...a big fail...but hey, I mis-read the recipe (which I'd studied for a whole week prior), and it's a miracle that they turned out as well as they did. I will attempt again sometime in the future I guess. I would have to admit though...I'm not a macaron fan and don't really understand what the fuss is all about.  But our son is and I thought I'd make some for him.  He said they tasted quite good...even though they got a big fail for appearance.

I also made boeuf bourguignon (beef burgundy) for our group celebration and vanilla ice cream just because and because I've fallen in love with home made ice cream. 

Have you ever tried avocado, raw cacao powder and maple syrup all mashed together and served as a dip?  Delicious.

Somewhere in amongst all that we had an engagement party...did I mention?

Well, it was last month actually...our Youngest Son proposed to the love of his life and she said YES.

 It was a Halloween themed party and everyone was encouraged to come fancy dress or to wear orange.

Our family being of Dutch decent...seemed to opt for the orange option!

Mr Honey Pie's talented niece made the cake for the engagement as well as for a double 

Baptism!  Yes, Little Miss Six and another of my nieces (Little Miss Seven) were baptised last Sunday.  The priest that baptised them, by sheer coincidence also baptised our Youngest Son twenty six years ago...Father Paul was flabbergasted when we told him.  He is quite new to our parish and our family was overjoyed at him being able to celebrate a second (or is that a third?)baptism with us. 

And...do you know what?

I'm secretly dreaming of a really, really boring week or two ahead...

Day 186/366

Standing Nude

Norman Lindsay Gallery

Faulconbridge

My day was spent at the gallery with family.

The weather was brilliant but cold.

I have lost count of the visits I have made to the above gallery with its beautiful garden surrounds.

Norman Lindsay was an artist, cartoonist and author, controversial in his time.

He was very popular with my children during the seventies and eighties for his children's book The Magic Pudding.

My four year old Grand Daughter loved the comic characters, my teenage Niece was shocked by the Satyrs and her sister took it all in her stride.

Each time I visit, I see a different aspect of Lindsay's life and art.

A multifaceted man who definitely pushed boundaries.

Day 134/366

Mother's Day 2012

Mum's the word.

(Niece's baby girl arrived at 10.20 p.m.)

Centre Step Card

Thanks to Frances Byrne over at Splitcoaststampers I'm proud to show you the beautiful card I made for my now thirteen year old niece.

I made my own flowers using a UME CP-2 Carl Punch, used lots of vintage buttons, glitter glue and some Kaisercraft lace.

The super clear instructions ensured great results and a card made with little effort.

Centre Step Card Instructions.

Crop & Swap

Saturday 12th November, Inaugural Meeting Of Crop & Swap, Faulconbridge NSW.

A big thank you to Jo & Joe!

Here is what I took (or some of it at least) 

Broad beans, herbs, lemongrass, kaffir lime leaves, bay leaves.

Potted herbs.

Sprouted adzuki beans and live silkworms!

Here is Joe giving the inauguration speech!

And below are some of the goodies I came home with, nom, nom, nom!

Kombucha

Daikon

I made a salad with all of this produce for birthday lunch at my sister's.

Birthday for Second Son, (38 already!!!)and Second Youngest Niece (13).

It's amazing how much more appetizing home grown and fresh is!!!!!

Sorry no pictures of resulting salad...no time, gobbled all up before a chance for photo-shoot(!!).

Also brought home basil, eggs, mushrooms, cookies, sage, well, I really believe I came home with more than I went with.

Priceless...the experience of satisfaction at being able to contribute to the household pantry without exchanging one cent!

Can't wait for next Crop & Swap.

Alysha's Birthday - 200th Post!

Another journal this time for my dear niece's birthday.

Thanks to the Graphics Fairy for Cute Critters graphic and to the design team at Sketch Saturday (Week #181) for the following sketch.

Happy Creating!

Linked to

The Graphics Fairy # 111